How Union Square’s huge Christmas tree is unwrapped, rustproofed

The star and the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree is lifted by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

The star and the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree is...

You need a dozen power wrenches and plenty of rustproof paint to put up a Christmas tree in Union Square.

Also a giant crane and a crew of 10 fellows in hard hats.

The tree that is going up in the middle of Union Square is a not exactly a tree but something called a “10050-110314-GE-MA.” It weighs several tons, is made of green plastic and was fabricated — like so many of the other dry goods sold in downtown San Francisco emporia — in China.

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This is the fifth year in a row that the great green impersonation has risen in the square. Lenny Drenski, the foreman from Macy’s department store in charge of putting it up, said he expects the tree to last another 15 years or so, with proper rustproofing.

The plastic greenery doesn’t rust, he said, but the metal scaffolding and the framework on the inside do. Drenski, who also places the Macy’s trees in New York and other cities, said San Francisco seems to be harder than New York on fake trees, for reasons that even Macy’s does not understand.

Almost a week of work

Constructing the tree, Drenski said, is a six-day job. The crew began work Sunday. On Wednesday, the tree lay in the middle of the square in three giant tiers, like parts of a wedding cake waiting to be assembled. On Thursday, workers finished assembling the top tier and hooked it up to a giant construction crane. Then they winched it skyward, plopped it atop the lower tiers and tweaked the greenery into place like a kid doing the Tab-A-goes-into-Slot-A thing on Christmas morning.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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Danny Seivirt peeks out of the crane during the installation of the Union Square Christmas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Danny Seivirt peeks out of the crane during the installation of the Union Square Christmas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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Lenny Drenski, a manager at Macys, attaches the star to the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Lenny Drenski, a manager at Macys, attaches the star to the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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The star and the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree is lifted by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

The star and the top tier of the Union Square Christmas tree is lifted by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Workers in the base of the Union Square Christmas tree wait for the top tier to be lifted in by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Workers in the base of the Union Square Christmas tree wait for the top tier to be lifted in by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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The Union Square Christmas tree is seen on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Union Square Christmas tree is seen on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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The Union Square Christmas tree is seen on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Union Square Christmas tree is seen on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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The star and the top portion of the Union Square Christmas tree is lifted by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

The star and the top portion of the Union Square Christmas tree is lifted by a crane on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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Lenny Drenski, a manager at Macys, prepares to climb into a portion of the Union Square Christmas tree on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Lenny Drenski, a manager at Macys, prepares to climb into a portion of the Union Square Christmas tree on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

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Jimmy Andrade signals to the crane operator to lower into place the top tier of the Union Square Christmas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Jimmy Andrade signals to the crane operator to lower into place the top tier of the Union Square Christmas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle

How Union Square’s huge Christmas tree is unwrapped, rustproofed

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For days, workers had assembled the framework with power wrenches that they primarily used to attach U-bolt safety clamps. The tree requires thousands of clamps that must each be tightened and tested, lest a giant chunk of fake tree tumble from the heavens onto the Union Square ice skaters below.

Drenski said a fake tree has certain advantages over a real tree, besides providing a week’s work for 10 artificial arborists. The take-apart tree came to the square from its summer home in three large storage vans and several hundred cardboard boxes.

“A reusable tree is greener,” Drenski said. “A real tree this size can be hard to find and hard to get here.”

Extra engineering required

Some years ago, the Macy’s empire opted to go the fake-tree route to make an ecological statement, although the fact that a real giant tree snapped when being hoisted into position in 2011 at the Atlanta store might have had something to do with it, too.

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A fake tree this size, Drenski said, required extra engineering after it left the factory in China. His crew in New York built special reinforcements, scaffolding and an interior ladder that had not come as original factory equipment with the fake tree. Climbing the inside of the tree is said to be a little like climbing the inside of the Statue of Liberty, which is also rustproof.

The tree factory, Drenski said, had never built an eight-story-tall tree before. It sent Macy’s a much shorter tree with a bunch of additional do-it-yourself branches that would have collapsed without the extra reinforcements that Drenski constructed.

Only God can make a tree. For a fake tree, he needs help.

On the off-season, Drenski said, there’s plenty of time to inspect the tree, replace any of the 40,000 bulbs suffering from job burnout and slather on the rustproofing.

A real tree has its own set of problems. It sheds needles. It requires fireproofing instead of rustproofing. But it smells nice.